Revelation 3: Acceptance

Question:

Transcript of Video:

God loves you and you may be, at this moment, or you may be able to remember some moments, where you felt that to the core of your being. But what happens when the weather changes and that feeling has gone away? Well, I would say two things. One, I think love is ultimately not a feeling it’s a decision and it’s God’s decision and God adores you. You make God’s day. You’re the apple of God’s eye. God loves you. That’s the truth. Some days you may get in touch with the feeling that encompasses that. But I would say number one, cling to the truth. That’s of your essence. You are loved of God and God has hopes of spending eternity with you.

Second of all, especially if the feeling of love is lost on you right now, write this on a piece of paper “God loves me” and keep that piece of paper with you. I’d encourage you to cart that piece of paper with you through the day and tuck it under your pillow at night. And you might say, “And when I do that will I feel that God loves me?” I don’t know. I don’t know if you will or not. But I think the truth of that has every potential of sinking into the reality of your being because it’s a decision and its God’s decision and the invitation for you is to cooperate with that decision. God is operating with love in your life and your response to co-operate with the truth of it. You’ll catch on. You’ll catch on.

92 Comments

Jessicaon March 21, 2014 at 14:38

Right this minute it’s the 18lb 10 month-old kitten in my lap who is stretched out on his back – making it almost impossible to type – and purring in his sleep. Often it’s hugs from friends and family, but other times it’s something far more ephemeral. I am deeply blessed to be actively reminded of how much I’m loved, and how much I love in my moment to moment life.

I remember going to Jasper, AB with a friend and going for a hike. As to got to the top of a fairly steep incline, the view of the mountains with snow on top took my breath away. It was as if God knew when painting the canvas of the world that at that moment I would be standing there. I was overwhelmed with the beauty of God’s creation and His presence. I was reminded of how much God adores me. I often think of that childlike moment when I don’t feel like God loves me.
God reminds me though every day of his love for me when I look at the blessings surrounding me. My family, my job, the children I work with. He has blessed me beyond anything I could imagine. Yes there are hard times and I struggle with chronic migraines but even through this He reminds me that his grace is enough. When take a look at my life I am floored by the blessings I never expected or deserve. He reminds me through the liturgy, through music, through friends who take time to take care of me. God is good, all the time.

God was with me today when Roy, the new IT guy made his third trip in three days from admin to my school so I could print in my meetings with the new notebook I got. He’s a big guy, pretty quiet didn’t say much, and seemed a little embarrassed with my enthusiasm whenever he showed up (not usually the way IT works), he just quietly, and unassumingly when about his work. He doesn’t know it but he saved me today!

I know I am loved because I have come to able to return love; and not what I thought love was for a number of years. My dogs have helped me to understand the unconditional love that God has for all of us.

The cross of Christ and – in “bad weather” when I do not know the love present in my heart – the memory of a moment when the magnitude of the love expressed by God in the gift of Christ and his cruel death shone clear and bright to me.

It happened when my child was pre-school age, and I was in the midst of directing rehearsal for our Christmas pageant. I was (and remain) in awe of the blessing and responsibility God graced me with in this precious life I gave birth to. All at once, with no particular bidding or prayer, the light was brighter and, you might say, all of the “tumblers fell into place” as if opening a padlock, click, click, click, and the truth of what it was God gave to us in Christ – that only out of the power of an infinite, powerful and irresistible love could a father sacrifice his only son – became absolutely clear and certain. And I knew and understood (in that moment) the perfection and completeness of the metaphor God used in human life to communicate his unconditional and limitless love to humanity in terms we could understand.

When I can’t feel God’s love immediately, I can sit in that moment as if it were new, and know again what God revealed to me then and my doubts vanish (until they return). And I mourn the weakness of my faith that allows me ever to feel alone.

I am reminded that I am loved everyday during the my hours long FaceTime calls with my beautiful fiance Lauren﻿. It is difficult sometimes to find the time or synch up our schedules, but for the last two years we have set aside time each and every day to see and talk with each other. I know I am loved because someone else out there wants to spend that kind of time with me. That is a pretty awesome thought and feeling.

This is quite a shift in perspective: that it is really God’s “decision” to love me, and, by implication, everyone else.
There are people near me who would reject any such truth as nothing more than another “pious statement”.
There is true solace in knowing that I am simply asked to “cling to the truth” of God’s abiding love for me and all others. This is a great gift, especially when I am weary of having to account for my faith one more time!
I think this insight will change my prayers. Maybe I don’t have to work so hard?! Maybe I can just let myself be loved by God…

Thank you – I was quite touched by this as I have often felt like I was missing something due to the lack of consistent feeling generated by what I know to be true. I feel most loved when I am able to observe the miracles in nature – just now, in NH, it is passing of warm shadows on snow that is past its brightest stage. The rains that warm the earth in preparation for the new life to spring forth.

I feel that my ability to feel loved by God, to be “vulnerable and also embraced which is to embrace all the unlovable aspects of myself, is directly related to how much I am able to love those for whom I find it hard to love, the people in my everyday life that I bump up against, who rub me the wrong way, who I dislike, who piss me off, who I hate at times, these are the people I feel I am called to love and in so trying and sometimes doing, I can begin to experience the way that I may be known and loved by God.

This is a beautiful sentiment, Bill. I too am reminded of God’s love most when a challenge to my own capacity to love and give appears: Another church member who is demanding, a student who pushes my buttons – that’s when I have to stop and make my own decision to love, which reminds me of God’s decision to love me in all my worldly imperfections.

My reminder that I am loved…. Many many years ago on a walk with my dogs, I found a rock shaped like a very large human heart. It was granite grey with two streaks of white marble transecting each other forming a Christian cross right through the middle. I loved it! It’s beautiful! But it was also very heavy to carry, so I would carry it awhile and then leave it by the side of the road until our walk the next day and then carry it a bit further, until I finally got it home. It’s been on my porch steps ever since then to remind me not only to keep my heart from becoming a heart of stone, but also I remember Jesus’s words saying “the stones will cry out”! So I think well, if my heart becomes hardened like this stone, Jesus has the power to even make this stone heart to beat, so I best get back to owning that soft and supple heart filled with love

Win, a story that good should be repeated! In it, I recognized the lesson of patience, dilligence, and God giving us what may seem at first to be too much to carry. Yet your patience and faith that you would get it home – and faith it would still be there the next day – has left you with a treasure. Beautiful! Thank you!

It is hard to descibe but it is an essence that I feel that I know is the Holy Spirit within. It is knowing that when “life” happens that I should “listen” for God’s work and path. It is “knowing” HIS love

Remembering I’m loved can be hard, but I do carry reminders. My pocket calendar has copies of Psalm 46, a form for Spiritual Communion, and snippets of copies of notes from my dearest friend and my brother tucked inside it. Emotionally, I used to run from representations of the cross, even the prettified versions used as jewelry. The torture was too overwhelming, too painful and horrible. Then, several years ago, in the midst of going through a very bad situation that seemed unending, a sudden sense of being loved by God washed over me. It was unexpected, stunning, beautiful, comforting, energizing… Later I tried to condense the feeling of being that loved into words or symbols I could etch onto polymer clay for a pendant so I’d never forget. Then it sank in — that is part of what the cross means! I made a small clay cross that I’ve worn ever since. It’s always there where I can touch it before I pray and whenever I’m feeling scared or lost and alone. It reminds me God is wherever I am and He loves everybody that much, including me.

My reminder that I am loved is that God is always there for me. Whenever I remember Him He is present. Always faithful; to all creation not just to me. He brings us all into being, moment by moment. That’s Love.

My reminder that I am loved comes with our earthly seasons: I know that in the depth of winter, the trees will green again. When I feel desolate, I know that it is seasonal. This too will pass, because God loves me.

If it’s God’s love I am considering, I feel it within me all the time. It’s a constant presence that reassures me. Love in the world is not so simple and is often changing. I am reminded that I am loved by the people in my life by their faith in me, by their kindnesses, their shared humor, by their willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ when I am in need. When I feel I have been let down by others, then I remind myself that they are not God and are fallible (as I am.) I am still held up by God’s love within me.

I can reach the idea of God loving me by saying to myself Psalm 23-which covers a lot of eventualities . Its a psalm of trust . I can also recall the Sunday School Hymn ” Jesus Loves me this I know because the Bible tells us so. ” I am more comfortable with “Jesus loving me”, than God.
I say this because of diseases in the world, and that God does God’s testing of us. I tend to resent that and resist growth, responsibilities- things that God requires of us. God’s love is “a severe mercy” (C.S. Lewis), and I wince.

I do a lot of wincing too. Living in our dangerous world with all of our human fragilities is a severe test, but I believe God’s love is infinitely tender and He helps us survive and heal and grow stronger. Life tests us, but God loves and cherishes us even when we don’t recognize and feel it.

I know I am loved by the good in the people around me and in creation. I also know I am loved when I can respond to those who wish me ill with love. The evil and tragedy of the cross is love unimaginable.

God made the decision to love me, and who am I to say She is wrong. I see that love in hindsight as I was protected through addiction and abuse. I see that love now in the eyes of my 3-legged cat who lies back in my arms and pats my face when I am sad, and I see that love in the future as I grow spiritually in my new church. I have been blessed, and all that is asked of me is gratitude.

Thank you Br Curtis for those words that I make God’s day and that He has hopes of spending eternity with me because it speaks of what I feel , never dreaming He could feel the same way about me. I was abused as a child and I would have this repetitive dream of beautiful colors and this white light up ahead and all I remember is waking up and feeling such a warmth and such love. I know He loves me but sometimes I do wish I could feel it more like that. I have realized too that love can take a long time to sink in.

I must admit that in the midst of the darkest hours and times of my life I have been aware of God’s love. I believe it is the gift my parents gave me in childhood by their example of daily being with God. At the age of 13 I was confirmed and my Mother gave me a copy of “The Upper Room” and told me that I should use it every day when I said my pray.ers. Like “Forward Day by Day” it followed the church year giving daily reading and reflections. I continued using it through college and until my husband married and choose to go to the Epispical Church a a melding of both our religious upbrinings. Through these reading and meditations as well as my own daily meditations I am aware of God’s unending love, even in the most darkest hours of my life.

I am reminded by the beauty in the world and the universe.
I am reminded when I contemplate the cross.
I am reminded when I serve others in my job as a nurse.
I am reminded when I’m with my husband and children.
A couple of years ago a church sent out emails every day that said, “Good morning, Princess! You are the beloved daughter of the King of the universe!” That made me smile every morning.

Well, great question. At this very moment, I feel loved by God because: I feel a peace in my life that I can only understand with Gods help, my marriage can only be described as fantastic, my family is healthy, happy and wise. As others have described, all this can change in a minute, but I believe God will give me the strength and love to push through it all.

There are many reminders, thank God. A good clean laugh. A warm conversation with friends. The adoring look in my dog’s eyes, even! Remembering – old friends who helped show me the way, darknesses that God brought me out of, music. I’m grateful for Brother Curtis’s word that love is God’s decision. Wow. We can’t go wrong.

Today I am flying to Arizona and it’s a bit frantic getting last minute details attended to. See how jumbled that sentence is! Whew, I will try to let go of anxiety and maybe then I’ll “catch on” to today’s Revelation.

I know that I am loved when I see my little granddaughter and her love that radiates throughout her whole being. She shows me God’s pure love. Through my family, relatives and friends God surrounds me with his love and attention. My church community shows God’s love as they surrounded me in the recent loss of my mother. My students somehow speak a word of encouragement at those moments when I need them. Then I know that God is not leaving me comfortless. I am loved and as one of my former priest always reminded me in his summary of St. Augustine’s saying that God loves each and every one of us as if there was no one else to love.

wow. these videos, these men, these voices, their smooth faces and confident eyes and easy smiles are my reminder that we are loved, and we are love. they seem to be men who arrived at putting down their own resistance, absolutely. They invite us to do the same: accept God’s love of you. Its much less work that way (see my unlined face, clear words, and sparkling eyes?). That he loves you is not your choice, its his. So if we could just get out of the way—put aside the resistance, the ‘self-sufficiency’, the self-judgement, the heaviness—-and just be, be open, be light, we would be available to cooperate. Be available to cooperate. I loved that. And I do believe I will catch on. “God loves me” is not about me—its about us,. God loves all of us so why the heck would I be an exception? Once I get out of the way by resisting God’s love, and get it that he wants me in total relationship, we can get on with the unity of ‘his character and nature’ -love-at work in and through all things.

I know God loves me because of all of the blessings He has brought into my life – my wife, my children, now a first grandchild will join us in May, my health, my abilities, and the focus He has given me to help others. I also like Br Almquist’s idea that when I don’t feel God’s love it is a decision on my part. I will try to remember that idea.

I can’t believe that some people do not believe, all you have to do is look around you and see the wonderful things of nature. God is there for each and everyone of us. All so family plays a lot, when you know they are there for you through their love for you. I always remember Rev. Massey speaking at a cub banquet saying you can count on your five fingers your true friends who are there for you. you don’t know when you are really going to be in need of our Lord, but He is always there for us.

For me, experiencing God’s love lies in trying to remain in the present. If I am able to live in the Now, instead of dwelling in the past or worrying about the future, I am more cognizant of the beauty of God’s creation and the potential for love, both in the people around me, and in myself. These are all gifts from a loving God, who cares for me, personally, in this moment and always.

When I look upon the cross and know that Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for me I know that I am loved. I also know when I share in the bread and wine at communion – another reminder that I am loved. I also know love when I gaze at the people I love, knowing in return that they are loving me.

I know and feel God’s love in two specific ways. (1) In some relationships which keep cropping up in my life, I feel the magnificence of God when I interact with these people, and especially if they, too, are on their own Christian journey. (2) When I contemplate the Passion, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the fact that God loves me so much to do the ultimate by giving His life for me that I might abide in His love.

Thinking/feeling my way through this, I very quickly ended up not in the place of reminders of God’s love, but in the place of fear: the terrain of theodicy. And almost as quickly, I found an answer that soothed my heart. It may be eight kinds of immature (or even heretical), but here it is:

Q. I know that God loves me, but will I still know that if one of the things I most dread should happen to me — an untimely death in the family, or some terrible harm to my children, for example?
A. I cannot answer for the future, but I know that if I am to be in such straits, God will be right there with me, feeling much as I feel when I see my children in pain.
Q. But if God loves us so much, how can he let such horrible things happen? I mean, I would do anything to spare my kids such pain!
A. God would no more intervene to stop us from making the choices that lead to suffering than I would turn my children into cardboard cutouts of themselves. To do so would be to remove that very life which makes me love them, and God love us. Love is life, and life is love, and life is also loss. No possibility of change or loss means no life, and there is no love without life.

As for the reminders of God’s love — a lungful of fresh air on a crisp morning, a bougainvillea in beautiful flower, the crazy-happy feeling I can get with and from friends, a moment of quiet reflection in the pew. The reminders are all around me — it’s just that so often I forget to see them and to name them for what they are.

I have a note by my bed, but I will carry one with me today in my pocket. When I am learning something new, I am overwhelmed with the grandure of God’s love. That he gave us a mind to contemplate even a tiny bit of what it would be like to live with Him forever, reminds me of this love. When I see a light go on in the eyes of my students and they understand what I have been trying it teach them, I feel his love and I am grateful.

I very much relate to Br. Almquists statement that love is ultimately not a feeling…it’s a decision. There are so many reminders of Gods love for me. One way I become aware of it is when I look back over my life…the journey of it….I can see Gods hand in all…guiding, nudging, comforting, accepting me as I am, admonishing, enlightening, prompting me to change/grow – sometimes even giving me a big shove. Always being in my life, through the welcome and the unwelcome.

I am reminded of the song “Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places” and the lesson of cooperate with God resonates with me — God is always doing his/her job, I need to do mine and then I will look for love and find love in the “right” places.

The reminder for me that I am loved is when I sin and ask for forgiveness. The constant reassurance that regardless of my shortcomings, I can still receive good things from God is a reminder of God’s love for me.

The reminder to me that I am loved by God is the warmth of community of my former Church, St. Anne’s Episcopal in Fremont, CA and in my new Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hopkinton, MA. God’s love brings his people together physically and emotionally.

By far this video Brother Curtis has touched me the most deeply in this wonderful series. I think the message showed me that He does indeed Love me and all of us.

I know I am loved by the multitude of blessings that God has given me. My family, my friends, my dog, my former students, the nature that surrounds me, the coming spring, a roof over my head…. the list goes on! How can I not know I am loved?

Dear Brother Curtis, thank you! When I operate from knowing I am loved, I am loving, and when my “weather changes,” I cannot. I think of tuning myself as an instrument to “co-operate” with, in love, in heaven on earth.

“You’ll catch on. You’ll catch on” the brother said. That’s how God’s grace always works, isn’t it. He acts, he does, he makes, he declares. And then, by his constant reminders (often in prayer, silence, the Word, the Eucharist) it sinks down to the subsoil of my soul. Good really does love me! Wow!

To echo- Wow – what a great expression of how we know God loves us — His constant reminders — God is the constant in my life – always there – always loving me — I just need to open my eyes and heart to Him.
Thanks for your words – great reminder.

In June of 1976, I suffered an industrial accident at work when a tank of ammonia exploded in my face. I lost the corneas on both my eyes and had burns in my mouth and throat. For the first 48 hours I was very sick with vomiting. I was on morphian for the pain. The treating doctor and my priest came to see me. They laid their hands on on me. At that moment I felt the Love of God, the presence of God in me and I knew that God was with me, protecting me and that I would be okay. It took three months for my corneas to grow back and to recover from the injury. eyes to recover. God’s Love healed me.

I feel most loved by God in grace-filled events; things that I could not have made happen through any effort of my own. One current, daily, blessing is my 16 1/2 yr old Corgi, Maggie. She has always been my “heart dog” and I have nothing to do with the fact that she is still here with me, happy, loving and relatively healthy. I appreciate every moment and know it is God loving us both.

Multiple blessings that come my way every day are the reminders that I am deeply loved by God. I forget who said that there are no coincidences, but I heartily subscribe to that notion. I practice finding blessings in all things, and I give God thanks for them. That gratefulness helps me to see God in all things and to sense his love and presence more deeply.

when I am praying with others for their healing or serving communion I am overwhelmed with love for them. I can feel God’s love pouring out to them through me. Anytime my love goes out to someone I know its source is from God. It’s like a stream overrunning its banks and flooding me as well.

Today I feel God’s love when I watch my children sleep, gather with friends in prayer, and savor moments of silence. I did write “God adores me!” on a little pink sticky note and I put it in my pocket for the day, because I need to practice receiving that love, accepting the fullness and richness of God’s tender and transformative love. Some days are much harder than others, and I am grateful that for today, I sense and practice the great abundance of God’s life-giving love.

Over the years, there have been many reminders to me of God’s love: family and friends, the biblical narrative (especially the gospels and the psalms), the sacraments (especially the eucharist). These days, it is mainly watching the sun rise and joining the whole creation in waking to live another day.

I think the complexity and materialism of daily life in the Western world frequently distracts me from God’s love. To re-ground myself I first try to remind myself of the miracle of my existence – that this tiny ball of rock at the edge of the universe is teeming with life, some of it “intelligent” (I’m not saying which parts) is a daily miracle that i sometimes take for granted. How priviledged and extraorinarily fortunate i am to be alive at all. And the second miracle – that Jesus Christ was born, lived and died on this earth, for us, for me. For without the life of Jesus i would struggle for meaning and purpose, and this priviledged existence would feel empty as it would be absent love.

I echo your words, Bill. I look at our world and am over-awed by its magnificence.
I sometimes ponder on what ‘we’ would be were it not for Jesus birth and life. Jewish people would still be Jewish; but what of the rest of us?
Another miracle is the gifts that I have been granted by God: when my husband was ill for so long, I prayed for patience, compassion, loving him in spite of everything he and I were living through. I received them.
When I stop rushing around and take time to listen to God’s whispers, amazing things happen.
Christina

I ponder this too from time to time, and I guess I’d probably live much the way I live now, but the real difference without Jesus (or without knowing Jesus) is that my relationship with God would be so impersonal. I still wonder about what my own purpose is being here, but when that question gets too mind boggling for me I just thank God for the privilege of being here in the first place and enjoy the journey!

I try to look at things that happen, both good and what I consider bad or negative, as coming from God’s love for me. I don’t know what His plan is for me, so I just have to trust in HIs love. For example, a little thing like when I’m late for work and just barely catch a red light. I try to see that as God’s way of stopping me from causing a wreck. Or when plans I was hoping for don’t turn out, I try to think that it’s because God has something else better for me in mind. And when good things happen, which I’m thankful is often, I hope that I remember to thank God and know it’s from His love for me.